The Sonoma County Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League sponsored an essay contest about the forced removal of people from their homes during World War II. Fred Gilardi's fifth period class researched personal resettlement stories and wrote about them, then submitted their essays for the contest. Gilardi says, "We had two winners: 2nd place went to Abby Spaletta and 3rd place to Lauren Nunes." Each winner received a certificate and cash prize from Henry Kaku, who represented the JACL, Sonoma County Chapter.